Credit system for all: UGC
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

All universities will have to implement a choice-based credit system (CBCS), which allows students to study subjects spanning multiple disciplines and in institutions other than their own, UGC chairman Ved Prakash said in the city on Friday.

To implement CBCS, the institutions must have the facilities to offer courses in a wide range of subjects in different streams, which most universities and colleges in Bengal lack.

Ved Prakash said since each institution would have to switch to CBCS within a year, his advice to the universities of Bengal was that they should not put off the implementation of the system on the ground of lack of facilities.

"... As the situation stands now, it is not very difficult for the institutions to implement the choice-based credit system. The problem lies only in offering the options to the students. My submission is that they (the institutions) should start the process with whatever subject options are available now. They can gradually expand the facilities depending on the demand."

He said all central universities had implemented the system and there were no reports of any of them facing any problem.

The UGC and the Centre had last year asked all universities to introduce the system.

Under the choice-based credit system, the credit transfer will take place within one university or between two institutions. Students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels will be able to pursue a course from more than one college or university if they feel that another institution offers better facilities. The credits will accrue, depending on the number of classes a student attends in a particular course.

Ved Prakash was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme at Calcutta University, where he had delivered a lecture on higher education in India in the context of globalisation.

Minutes after the UGC chairman offered his suggestion, CU interim vice-chancellor Sugata Marjit said the university had no plans to introduce the choice-based credit system at the undergraduate level. He, however, said the university was almost ready to implement the system at the postgraduate level.